International Journal of Integrated Engineering, Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p.

9-16

Finite Element Simulation in Superplastic forming of Friction

Stir Welded Aluminium Alloy 6061-T6
P.Ganesh1,*, V.S. Senthil Kumar2
1

Assistant Professor, Department of Production Technology, Madras Institute of Technology, Chrompet Anna
University, Chennai 600044, India.
2
Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Guindy Anna University,
Chennai 600025, India.
Received 19 June 2011; accepted 2 July 2011, available online 21 September 2011
Abstract: Superplasticity in materials is the ability of materials to achieve large elongation only under specific
conditions of temperature and strain rate. Superplastic Forming (SPF) is an important industrial process that has
found application in sheet metal forming in the aerospace and automotive industries. Friction Stir Welding (FSW)
is a solid state joining process that can alter the grain structure of the parent material. FSW process is an effective
tool to refine the grain structure of the sheet metal and enhance their Superplasticity. Friction Stir Welding was
used to join Superplastic AA 6061-T6 sheets. The Finite Element Simulation was performed for the Superplastic
Forming of the Friction Stir Welded joints to evaluate the thinning and formability of AA 6061-T6 for
hemispherical shape. The commercially available Finite Element Software ABAQUS was used to execute these
simulations.
Keywords: Superplastic forming, friction stir welding, AA 6061-T6, finite element analysis.

1. Introduction
Aluminum (Al) alloys are receiving increasing
interest in Aerospace industry principally because of their
light weight: among structural materials, Al alloys have
the low density and offer the highest potential for saving
weight, especially in areas transportation components are
in use. In these applications, the increasing demand for
lightweight alloys, in particular for Al alloys and the
inability of conventional forming techniques to
effectively form these alloys make Superplastic Forming
(SPF) an attractive forming technique. Extremely
complex shapes can be manufactured by SPF. The
application of the Blow Forming (BF) process is
considering light metallic alloys such as aluminium,
titanium and magnesium ones, some of which are hard to
form using conventional conditions. The BF process
consists in the application of a forming gas (e.g. air,
argon) pressure on the blank at an elevated temperature
that is forced in a die cavity. SPF has the advantage of
forming components with large and complex shape, in a
single operation, to a near net shape, reduce forming time
and tooling cost, enhanced dimensional accuracy.
However, SPF with BF application for metals has not
been used in the industry, owing to the high cost of the
process and raw materials, which made this type of
process globally less competitive compared with other
conventional technologies. In order to overcome these
limits, high strain rate superplasticity (HSRSP) and
Friction Stir Welding (FSW) have been developed [10].
FSW is a relatively new way to perform
welding
operation in solid-state conditions. In FSW, the rotating
*Corresponding author: ganesheec@gmail.com
2011 UTHM Publisher. All right reserved.
penerbit.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijie

tool is inserted in to the material and after dwell time, it

moves along the joint line. Friction between the tool and
the workpiece generates heat which reduces the flow
stress of material around the rotating pin and tool
shoulder and then the weld joint is produced by material
flow from the advancing side to the retreating side of the
weldment [9]. FSW has been successfully applied in the
joining of aluminum, magnesium and titanium alloys.
An attempt has been made in combining the two
processes (FSW-SPF), to study the effect of different
friction stir welding rates on the microstructural
evaluation, tensile testing, superplastic formability and
superplastic thinning behavior of AA 6061-T6
superplastic sheets were investigated.

2. Experimental Work
The 3 mm thick AA 6061-T6 rolled plates was used
for the present study. The Fig. 1 shows the schematic
picture of the tool geometry used for the present FSW
process. The shoulder face was designed as a concave
cone while the inside angle of the rotating tool was about
82o. Table 1 shows the design parameters of the tool. The
composition of the aluminum alloy is given in Table 2.
Single pass welding was used to fabricate the butt joints.
A non-consumable rotating tool made of M2 high speed
steel with a hardness of 52 HRC was used to fabricate
FSW joint. The welding tool was kept perpendicular to
the workpiece. The selected range of tool rotating speed
was 500, 710 and 1000 rpm and speed of travel was
varied from 40 to 80 mm/min. The plates were clamped
as shown in Fig. 2.

P. Ganesh, V.S.S. Kumar, Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 9-16

sensitivity was approximated at several strain values from

tests run at different constant strain rates.
The specimens were prepared from the FSW
component as per the SPF die requirements. The
specimens were blow formed to the hemispherical die
shape at 450-500oC.

Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of the tool used in the

present study; 1. Tool shank, 2. Tool head, 3. Tool
shoulder, 4. Tool pin (All Dimensions are in mm).
Table 1 Design parameters of the FSW tool
Process parameter
Values
Tool shoulder diameter, D mm)

Pin diameter, d (mm)

Tool pin length, L (mm)

2.85

Tool inclined angle (o)

Tool shank diameter (mm)

20

Tool head diameter (mm)

22

3. Results
3.1 Microstructural Evolution
The microstructure show in Fig. 3, the Annealed
matrix of the alloy 6061 which has been cold worked
(rolled). The microstructure shows the particles of Mg2Si
particles along with some particles of Fe3SiAl2 that has
been broken up due to rolling process and formed along
the direction of the rolling. Base metal of AA 6061-T6
contains coarse and elongated grains with uniformly
distributed very fine precipitates. The Photo-micrograph
shows the interface junction of the weld and the alloy
6061.The 6061 alloy has finer grains of Mg2Si particles
without orientation, shown in Fig. 4.

Al

Zn

Mg

Cu

Fe

Ti

Si

Mn

Balance

0.001

0.952

0.258

0.100

0.032

0.615

0.033

Table 2 Chemical Composition of AA 6061 Alloy in

wt%.

Fig. 3 Microstructure of Base metal AA6061-T6.

Fig. 2 Experimental setup of FSW.

The microstructural studies were made utilizing
optical and scanning electron microscopy. After welding,
the samples were sectioned normal to the welding
direction and then prepared by grinding disks and
polished and finally etched with Kellers reagent: 150mL
H2O, 3 mL HNO3, 6 mL HCl, and 6 mL HF [9].
The superplastic behavior of the welded sheets was
characterized through conducting uniaxial hot tensile
testing using specimens cut along and across to the
welding directions. The superplastic tensile specimen
gage length, width, and thickness were 25, 6 and 2 mm,
respectively. Reported total strain (elongation-to-fracture)
for the after welding (500, 710 and 1000 rpm) was based
on the average of at least two tests. The strain rate

10

Fig. 4 Microstructure of 6061-weld zone interface.

The matrix shows the microstructure of the weld
zone. Fine grains of complex of Mg2Si and with insoluble
(Fe, Mn) Al6 particles precipitated. There is a significant
breakup of MgZn2 particles, subsequently creating a
uniform distribution of finer MgZn2 particles in the aluminium matrix. It is due to the stirring action at plastic
condition of the metal during FSW.
The weld region of FSW contains very fine grains
and this is due to dynamic recrystallization that occurred
during FSW process. FSW zone with thermo

P. Ganesh, V.S.S. Kumar, Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 9-16

mechanically formed ring like structures commonly

known as onion rings is shown in Fig. 5.

Fig. 5 Onion Rings of 6061-weld zone interface.

Fig. 7 Stress-Strain Superplastic Behavior of FSW at 500,

700 & 1000 rpm along the welding direction at strain rate
of 3.36X104 s1.
Table 3 Hot Tensile Test Results
S.NO

STIR ZONE

A
S

SWIRL ZONE

R
S

100m

Fig. 6 Optical micrographs showing the flow pattern in

the nuggets after Friction Stir Welding.
Microstructural
investigation
using
optical
microscopy for the welded sheets within the weld nugget
for all three welding speeds revealed the formation of
similar macro and microstructures with slight variations.
Accordingly, the sheets welded at 500, 710 and 1000 rpm
were chosen for detailed analysis in the current section.
Based on evidence that the heat input to the weld
increases with decreasing welding rate using the same
rotational speed.
The advancing side (AS) is on the left and the
retreating side (RS) is on the right as shown in Fig.6. The
microstructurally developed regions can be divided into 4
distinct zones: the stir zone along the weld centerline, a
swirl zone extending towards the advancing side of the
tool and within the stir zone, a thermomechanically
affected zone (TMT) on either sides of the weld and a
heat affected zone (HAZ) surrounding the TMT.
In general, friction stir welding produced grain sizes
that varied between 2.6, 2.2, 3.6 and 4.5 m at different
locations across the weld nugget.

1
2
3

PROP.
UTM
(N/mm2)
ELON.
(%)
YIELD
STRE.
(N/mm2)

500 RPM

700 RPM

1000 RPM

ACR.

ALO.

ACR.

ALO.

ACR.

ALO.

104

82

82

68

70

70

26

44

30

47.5

44.3

51

92

63

69

24

62

121

From the hot tensile test result in Table 3 shows that

the ultimate tensile point decreases with increase in FSW
rpm and the percentage of elongation increase in increase
in FSW rpm. The hot tensile test specimens along and
across the welded region can be visualized in Fig.8.

3.2 Tensile Properties

The superplastic behavior of the base metal and the
FSW material welded at 500, 710, and 1000 rpm was
investigated at a temperature of 450 C and tensile strain
rates of 3.36 X 104 s1. Estimates of true-stress and truestrain were determined from force and elongation
measurements using the assumptions of constant volume
and uniform cross-sectional area change. Fig. 7 shows
typical stress-strain curves behavior at 450 C and a strain
rate of 3.36 X 104 s1 for all three welded joint
conditions.

Fig. 8 Friction Stir Welding Superplastic Tensile Test

coupons are shown after Stretching (Elongation) the FSW
zone (along and across the weld zone).

11

P. Ganesh, V.S.S. Kumar, Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 9-16

4. Superplastic Behavior
The Superplastic behavior of Friction stir welded
sheets welded at 500, 710 and 1000 rpm was investigated
at a temperature of 450 oC and strain rate of 3.36 X 104
s1. The FSW-SPF were die formed in to hemispherical
dome shape. The thickness variation along the cross
section of the hemispherical dome is given in Table 4.
Table 4 Thickness variation along the cross section of
Hemispherical Domes in mm
COMPO
NENT

TRAIL
NO.

FSWSPF

1
2

BLANK
THICK
(mm)
2
2

THICKNESS AT
THE SECTION (mm)
1
2
3
4
1.87
1.50 1.07 0.86
1.81
1.80 1.40 1.03

Fig. 10 Superplastic Blow Forming (die forming).

Table 5 Dome heights FSW - SPF components

FSWSPF
(RPM)
500
710
1000

TEMP.
(oC)
450
450
450

PRESS
.
(Bar)
1 4.5
1 4.5
1 4.5

FORMING
TIME
(Min)
45
45
50

DOME
HEIGHT
(mm)
18.4
18.5
25.2

The dome height values of FSW-SPF at various

FSW tool rotational speed is given in Table 5. The
various dome height formed by die forming process is
shown in Fig.9. Fig.10. shows the schematic sketch of the
Superplastic die forming (blow forming).

Fig. 9 Superplastic Behavior of FSW-SPF

5. Procedure For Determining Materials

Data From The Inflation Test
The procedure for determining material parameters
from Superplastic inflation test [4,5] shown in Fig. 11.
Under the given constant pressure, the heights of the
dome are measured by an LVDT device and recorded as
a function of time.
Grid circles of diameter d0 (2.5mm) laser etched on
the sheets were employed to measure strain levels in each
test [8]. During forming the laser etched circles were
distorted into ellipses and/or larger circles.

Fig. 11 Superplastic free-inflation process.

Fig. 12 Major and Minor Dia. Measurement.

Measurements of the major, d1 and minor, d2,
diameters after deformation were made to determine the
principal strains; the principal strain directions and
distorted grids are given in Fig. 12. The principal strains,
effective strain and strain rates can then be expressed as
[1,4,5]

(1)

(2)

12

P. Ganesh, V.S.S. Kumar, Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 9-16

(8)

(3)
where

is the die radius,

(4)

(9)

The instantaneous thickness can be obtained from [4,5]

(5)
where
: Original thickness of the sheet (mm)

(10)

: Thickness of the deformed sheet (mm)

: Principle strain in directions 1,2 and 3

: Forming pressure (N/mm2)

: Effective strain
: effective strain rate
: forming time (sec)
: Material constant

: Radius of curvature (mm)

: Die radius (mm)
: Dome height (mm)
: Instantaneous thickness (mm)
: Circumferential stress (N/mm2)
: Tangential stress (N/mm2)
: Radial stress (N/mm2)
: Equivalent stress (N/mm2)

(10)
Fig. 13 Constitutive equation from flow curve (

Height function of time).

(11)

The equivalent stress is defined as

(6)
(12)

Table 6 Geometrical dimensions of the die and sheet

Parameter

Dimensions

Sheet radius (mm)

73

Die entry radius (mm)

Thickness of the sheet (mm)

Radius of the die (mm)

27

Table 7 Material properties for AA6061-T6 at 450oC

Assuming that there is no variation of stress through

the thickness of a thin-walled pressure vessel, the hoop
stress
can be related to the applied pressure p by
(7)

Variable

Value

Youngs modulus (N/mm2)

Poissons ratio

71000
0.3

Material constant (Mpa sm)

424

Strain-rate sensitivity

0.34

Friction coefficient

0.1

The hot tensile test performed for the FSW joints

along the welded joint is used in the above Fig. 13 to
determine the material constant m and K.

From the geometry shown in Fig. 10, it is found that

13

P. Ganesh, V.S.S. Kumar, Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 9-16

6. Finite Element Model

Superplastic forming is a complicated process
involving large strain, large deformation, material nonlinearity and usually deformation dependent boundary
conditions [3]. Consequently, the numerical analysis of
such a highly non-linear system involves difficulty in
computation of the problems. The superplastic behaviour
of materials is characterized by the dependency of the
flow stress upon the strain-rate, which allows the material
to be described as rigidviscoplatic. The simulation of
superplastic forming can be performed ABAQUS.
The equivalent strain-rate is obtained from the
constitutive equation

(a)

(12)
The sheet and die configuration is shown in Fig.14
(a,b,c), before forming, during forming and after
forming, respectively.
Finite Element simulations for the hemispherical
dome shape are conducted in the study. The forming
region of the die is 27 mm in diameter, and the initial
sheet thickness is 2 mm. The die is defined as rigid body
(R3D3 type) and sheet as a deformable body (S4R
element) with axi-symmetric shell elements. The material
is assumed to be isotropic, following the von Mises flow
rule. A rigid-viscoplastic Finite Element Modelling for
simulating Superplastic Forming processes was
developed. The model is based on an incremental
deformation theory, which assumes a minimum plasticwork path during a small time interval t. As an
application to axisymmetric modeling, a hemisphere cup
shape was simulated. Due to symmetry, only one half of
the shape was modeled using 3 dimensional shell
element. The predicted sheet thickness distribution for the
Friction Stir Welded Superplastic Forming specimens
was simulated at pressure cycle for constant friction
coefficients as shown in Fig. 15.
The blank sheet (deformable body) was clamped all
around the edge as shown in Fig. 16. While the rigid body
was encastred at the reference point as indicated. The
deformable body was encastred at the edge which contact
the die. The blank corner along the z-axis was locked.
The interaction property was provided between master
(rigid body) and slave (deformable body) as Surface-toSurface contact with Finite Sliding and node to surface.
The contact interaction property was initiated with
tangential behavior, penalty method, friction coefficient
as 0.1.
A total of 866 linear quadrilateral elements of type
S4R are used to model the deformable body and the total
of 506 linear triangular elements of type R3D3 are used
to model the rigid body. Totally 1194 nodes and 1372
elements have been used for analysis. A very fine mesh is
used in the Friction Stir Welded region (Zone 2) and
coarse mesh is used in the non-welded region (Zone 1)
shown in Fig.17. For a trail experiment, constant load is
applied and the maximum strain rate is set to 3.36x10-4s-1
For all simulations, the analysis is done till the die height.

14

(b)

(c)
Fig. 14 The sheet and die configuration; (a) Before
forming, (b) During forming and (c) After forming.

Fig. 15 Thickness Distribution.

P. Ganesh, V.S.S. Kumar, Int. J. Of Integrated Engineering Vol. 3 No. 1 (2011) p. 9-16

The variation of the thickness during forming is

shown in Fig.19. It is observed that the thickness of the
component at the center is decreasing steadily during
forming. Both theoretical and FEM model agrees fairly
well.

Fig. 16 Selective Grain refinement.

A very fine mesh is used in the transition region
between the fine and coarse grains to enhance the
analysis accuracy [10]. The reason for using continuum
elements is to capture the multiaxial stress state generated
in the transition region. The load is controlled according
to the maximum strain rate from the sheet, which is set to
3.36 X 10-4 s-1.

Fig. 19 Variation of thickness during forming.

8. Conclusion
In this paper, a experimental study of friction stir
welded Superplastic forming of the AA6061-T6 sheets
are formed through die forming. The experimental and
finite element analyses have been conducted for
optimum forming time and optimum temperature for the
given pressure. The fine meshed area bulge profile
increases during the forming with consequent decrease
thickness at the pole. The formability for the FSW 1000
rpm showed a very high pole height than the other two
welding speeds.

References
Fig. 17 Friction Stir Welded Blank with Zones 1 and 2
highlighted.

7. Results And Discussion

A finite element analysis using the shell element and a
simple theoretical model has analyzed to compare the
results with the existing experimental values.
The variation of relative bulge height with forming
time at constant pressure is shown in Fig.18. It is
observed that the dome height increases with constant
pressure.

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